East Adelaide Podiatry Privacy Policy

The privacy of our clients are important to us and how we handle your information is in adherence with the Australian Privacy Principles contained in the Privacy Act 1988.

This privacy statement explains the type of personal information that East Adelaide podiatry will collect and how we handle that information in regards to your treatment.   You may be required to provide personal and sensitive information including health information which will form part of your consultation, we understand that the information that you entrust to us is private and confidential.

Any personal information collected by any member of East Adelaide Podiatry is treated as confidential and follows the Australian Privacy Principles as contained in the Privacy Act 1988. Our podiatrist treat each patient with the highest level confidentiality and respect your privacy in accordance with the applicable privacy laws and our own internal policies and procedures.

What is personal information?

We define ‘personal information’ as information or an opinion about an identified individualor an individual who is reasonably identifiable, whether the information or opinion is true or not, or whether the information or opinion is recorded in a material form or not.

Personal information includes ‘sensitive information’ (which includes health information and information or an opinion about an individual’s racial origin, political opinion, membership of a political association or trade union, religious beliefs, sexual preferences or criminal record) and ‘health information’ (which includes information or opinion about the health or a disability of an individual, the individual’s wishes about the provision of health services, or health services provided or to be provided to an individual). In this privacy statement, a reference to personal information includes both sensitive and health information.

What personal information does East Adelaide Podiatry hold about you?

Your podiatrist at East Adelaide Podiatry may hold some and if not all of the following information about you:

  • Name, address, telephone number(s)
  • Date of birth
  • Sex
  • Marital status
  • Email address
  • Occupation
  • Medicare card number
  • Health information
  • General practitioner
  • Referring doctor
  • Returned service organisation
  • Transaction details associated with services we have provided to you
  • Any additional information provided to us by you
  • Any information you provided to us through patient surveys and feedback forms

How do we collect your personal information?

When you first visit East Adelaide Podiatry your Podiatrist will collect Personal information which may include your name, date of birth, address, contact details and private health insurance details. Sensitive information collected by East Adelaide Podiatry may include information about your health or medical history. We generally collect personal information in person, in writing, by telephone, email or via our website.

For example, we may collect information when you:

  • make an appointment to see a Podiatrist
  • have customer interactions with us where we record system notes, voice recordings ortelephone conversations
  • use our website feedback function
  • complete a patient survey regarding our services.

 

If you contact us with an enquiry about our services via our website or any other communication channel, we may use your personal information to contact you for the purposes of providing you with further information, and/or to follow up whether you have any interest in acquiring services from us. You can let us know anytime in writing, or by calling us on the telephone number listed within the ‘Direct Marketing and Your Privacy’ section if you no longer wish to be contacted for these purposes. Your consent will remain current until you advise us otherwise.

Where you have provided us with personal information about other individuals (in writing or verbally) such as for your next of kin, you must ensure that they are aware or will be made aware that you have provided their personal information to us, and how we will handle their personal information.If the information you are providing to us is health or sensitive information you must first obtain their consent before providing information to us. We may also collect personal information from third parties such as: 

 

  • Health fund providers: to check your health fund eligibility and comply with such laws as Private Health Insurance Act 2007 (Cth) and the National Health Act 1953 (Cth).

  • Other health care services to verify information you have provided to us.

  • The policy holder who is responsible forthe management of your health insurance membership, or is authorised to provide us with information on your behalf, regarding your private health insurance cover and fees associated with our services. 

For what purpose do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?

East Adelaide Podiatry collects, holds, uses and discloses your personal information in order to provide you with health care related services including:

  • managing our ongoing relationship with you
  • answering any queries you may have in relation to health care services
  • assessing your suitability for health services in our facility – you may be referred to another health care facility under the care of our podiatrist  if your health history deems this necessary for your health and wellbeing
  • conducting patient surveys including satisfaction and feedback
  • conducting market research and analysis
  •  managing reviews to develop and improve our services.

 

We may also collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information in order to:

  • train personnel
  • resolve and legal and/or commercial complaints or issues in relation to compensation recovery
  • meet legislative requirements relating to health care providers
  • perform any of our functions and activities relating to our business
  • We will generally only use personal information for the purpose for which it is collected, or for a purpose that is related to the services you are provided at East Adelaide Podiatry.
  • Who do we disclose your information to?

 

East Adelaide Podiatry will not sell or disclose your personal details for any purpose that is not related to your relationship with us.

We rely on third parties such as health care funds and other service providers (pharmacy, radiology, pathology, physiotherapy) to perform specialised activities for East Adelaide and your personal information may be provided to these third parties to enable them to perform their agreed services. East Adelaide Podiatry may also be required to disclose your information to comply with legislation.

We may disclose personal information for the purposes described under the heading ‘For what purpose do we collect, hold, use and disclose your personal information?’ to our contracted services providers as listed above, as well as government authorities (Medicare Australia), other hospitals, medical and general treatment providers and persons authorised by you in the processes of our service provision.

If you are not the policy holder of the nominated private health fund elected to use for the provision of services at East Adelaide Podiatry, we may also disclose your personal information to the policy holder as part of administering and processing your eligibility for care under private health insurance provisions.

This may include the disclosure of sensitive and health information about services being used by you under the policy holder’s membership. We may also disclose personal information to parties involved in a prospective or actual transfer or our assets or business.

How to access and correct your personal information?

We try to ensure that personal information we hold is accurate, complete and up to date. Please let us know if there are any errors in your personal information and keep us up to date with changes to your personal information such as change of address. You will be requested to check and update your personal information on each visit to our health services. If you believe that personal information that we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or inaccurate, then you may request amendments. We will consider if the information requires amendment and if we do not agree, we will add a note to the personal information stating your disagreement with the information

You may request access to your personal information held by East Adelaide Podiatry by writing to the Director requesting that you wish to gain the information.

You are not required to provide a reason for requesting access. Where we hold information that you are entitled to access, we will endeavour to provide you with a suitable range of choices as to how it may be collected (e.g. post or collection)

How to contact us to make a privacy complaint?

If you have any queries, concerns or complaints about the manner in which your personal information has been collected or handled by East Adelaide Podiatry, please place your concerns in writing and address to:

            East Adelaide Podiatry

            C/Privacy policy

            50 Hutts Street

            Adelaide 5000

Marketing and your privacy

From time to time we may contact you to provide you with information about our services. When we contact you, it may be by mail, telephone, email, sms and/or via digital media channels.

When you become a patient of East Adelaide Podiatry you consent to us using your personal information for marketing purposes (for an indefinite period including after you may cease accessing our services), unless you contact us to withdrawal your consent. Our most common form of marketing is via email which you may elect to opt-out of on our Patient Registration Form on your first visit. We also offer you a number of opportunities to opt-out of any marketing as you receive them.

If you are currently receiving marketing materials and wish to opt out, you can do so by following the unsubscribed links on emails or you can contact:

  • Email: info@eastadelaidepodiatry.com.au
  • Mail: East Adelaide Podiatry, Att: Marketing,  50 Hutt Street, Adelaide 5000
  • Telephone: 08 8210 9410

 

If you request not to receive marketing material, please note that we will still contact you in relation to our on-going relationship with you whilst you undergo health services with us. For example, we will send you health service information, appointment notifications, bills, patient satisfaction surveys, statements and notices that are relevant to the services for which you are accessing East Adelaide Podiatry.